After crying for half an hour, Alicia sorted out her emotions.
Grieve. The half of her that makes her whole was now gone.
Valerio had always been part of her life, since childhood to adulthood. She thought he would stay with her until old age and watch their children grow just like other couples in the village.
But man propose God dispose. Valerio died protecting her. For a moment, she lost the will to live.
Guilty. Alicia felt guilty that she gave up on living, even for a moment. Guilty on how cheap she thought her life was. Guilty on how shallow her love to her husband.
"I'm sorry Valerio. I won't give up anymore. I'll never give up again. My love to you is not that shallow. I'll keep on living so that I can keep loving you."
Her beloved Valerio was no more. This was the undeniable truth. But he will still be alive in her heart, if she keeps on living.
His blood will still be running in their children's vein, if she keeps on living.
Memories of him will still pass to their descendants, if she keeps on living.
So, she NEEDS to keep on living and never give up again.
Powered by the new profound hope, Alicia assessed her current situation.
She looked at her babies. She was certain that they are her babies. Valerio's blood run through inside these babies. She did not know how she gave birth, but she knew that they are her babies.
They were firmly secured to her body with a special cloth. The cloth was tied to her dress, which she noticed that the dress was not hers. The material was very smooth and seemed high-class.
Then she looked at the 'water'. The 'water' was not big, she could touch the edge of it with just a reach. She could clearly see the arrangements at the outside of the 'water' which seemed like an arrangement for a bedroom and the 'water' was the bed. There was no one else in the room.
Alicia nudged closer to the edge of the 'water'. With one hand supporting her babies, she poked the edge of the 'water' with the other hand and her finger easily passed through the 'water'. Seeing that there was no problem, she stretched out her whole hand. The outside was slightly colder, other than that, there was no problem.
Alicia took a deep breath and braved herself. She got out of the 'water' as if going out of bed. There was nothing stopping her which she only felt like going through a membrane of water.
As she made a big movement, Alicia first checked on her babies, just to find that they were very well behaved.
After getting out of the 'water', her dress was miraculously not wet even without a drop of water remained. Bemused, she inserted her hand in the 'water' and retracted it back only to find that her hand was indeed not wet. Nevertheless, compared to a breathable water and standing pile of water, a dry water was less impactful.
Firmly holding her babies, Alicia walked around the room while checking her body. Moving her limbs, she found no problems on her body. She even felt that her body was better and stronger than before. She did not even put an effort to carry her little buns that weight almost as heavy as a basket of fruits. This was an impossible feat if this was her before.
She found a table mirror, so she checked her reflection on it. Other than her shoulder-long hair that had grown passed her lower back, she found that she was the same as before.
Shifting her focus to her surroundings, Alicia decided to look out the glass 'window' first. It was very conspicuous as the 'window' filled up the entire wall. When she approached the glass 'window', she almost got herself acrophobic because of the height.
Seeing the scenery outside, Alicia decided not to get too close to the glass and only stayed one meter away from it. Nevertheless, she was still enthralled by the majestic panoramic view of misty mountains and rivers. Shafts of sunlight radiantly moved as the clouds in the sky shifted around. It was a very beautiful scenery. A wonder of nature.
After a few second being mesmerized by the scenery, she came to herself and noticed something. The longer she looked at the scenery, the weirder it looks. But Alicia could not immediately tell what was wrong with this scenery.
Knock. Knock.
Before Alicia could point out the weirdness, a knocking sound came from the door. Then, the door was gently opened and a tall old man appeared. He paused at the door frame and smiled at Alicia.
"May I come in?" he asked while gesturing with his hand.
Alicia momentarily dazed. Despite hearing the question, Alicia did not understand a word from him. The sound was very foreign to her. Unconsciously, her hands holding the babies harden.
"May I come in? I brought tea and snacks" Ebraham repeated his question while showing the maid automata behind him to further express his intention.
Alicia noticed the maid pushing fancy food trolley behind him and looked back to the unfamiliar old man that was waiting for her respond. Sensing no harm from them, Alicia slightly nodded but still put up her guard.
Receiving a respond, Ebraham smiled and directly went to the coffee table in the corner of the room, next to the glass window. The maid automata trailed behind him with the food trolley.
Alicia looked at the old man as he sat on the chair while the maid arranged the food on the table.
"Come. Take a sit" he said while he tapped and gestured the seat in front him. His action was gentle as if afraid of startling the family.
While Alicia did not understand his word, she still understood what the invitation gesture implied of. Firmly holding her babies, she sat facing the old man while glancing at the maid that silently stood beside the table after finished arranging the food.
Retracting her gaze, Alicia observed the old man in front of her. The old man was very tall as she needed to look up to see his face. Neat black beard filled up half of his face, but Alicia could see his gentle expression. And his eyes were very clear, without any cloudiness of a mundane person would usually have.
Alicia tried to guess the old man's identity by his clothing. The old man wore a simple blueish white robe. The delicate and luxury robe radiated a faint silvery glow, making him appeared as though he was a high noble.
'Or maybe he is a noble' Alicia silently speculated his identity.
Ebraham let this young mother to observe him and sort her mind out.
Before they could even start a conversation, the twin babies took the initiative by letting a happy sound.
"Aah!" the twins happily cried when they saw the old man and reached out their tiny hands towards him.
Ebraham smiled until his eyes almost closed. He leaned forward to touch the twins' hands with his fingers and let them played with his fingers for a moment.
The twins laughed as they toyed with Ebraham's fingers and soon shifted to play by themselves.
"These babies grow really fast" Ebraham kindly remarked.
The new-born twins were just 3 days old yet already grew like 3 weeks old. Even though the day here was longer, it was only 36 hours per day not 1 week per day. The mystical growth speed must have something to do with their mother.
When Alicia heard his words this time, she gasped a little as she was surprised to get some of the meaning behind those words.
"Oh. Did you understand my words? Just a bit, it seems" Ebraham noticed her surprised expression and guessed.
"Yes. I understand some of your words even when I don't know what language you're saying" Alicia spoke for the first time, of course in her own language. She did not know if this old man could understand her. And to her surprise, the old man replied.
"That means you opened up to me. Even just a little. And I opened up to you, so I understand you" Ebraham paused a little to see if she can catch up.
"As we are speaking, we bartered word souls. I offer you my word souls and if you accept it, you understand my words. When you speak, I accept your word souls, so I understand your words. We must honestly mean what we are saying for the word souls to fully convey the meaning of our words. And we must honestly accept the word souls to fully understand it."
He further explained to her about word souls and the mechanism behind it. But then, Ebraham decided to summarize it with just one sentence.
"Just speaks like you mean it"
While listening to Ebraham's explanation, Alicia's mind was trying to process what he was saying.
'Word souls? What is he talking about? I get the 'opening to each other' part, but what does that have to do with soul?' While she understood his words, she just could not relate the word 'soul' with speaking.
But listening further to his explanation, she finally understood; speaks honestly and mean every words you said, listen closely and accept what others are saying.
Looking at comprehending look on her face, Ebraham continued talking with ease.
"My name is Ebraham Raiss van Ur. I'm a Great Sage and live in this building, the Sky Pillar. As the name implies, this building is a pillar that goes up to and support the sky. And there are 8 of this Sky Pillar in this world."
Ebraham intentionally did not directly tell her about other world and slowly let her process the dissimilarity of the world to decrease the impact of shock.
'Another unfamiliar word. Great Sage? A very wise person? Sky Pillar? The pillar that high enough to support the sky?'
Confusion was written all over Alicia's face. She did not know much about higher society, so she could only guess that this old man was very high above based on the word 'Great' in his title. But the Sky Pillar gave her a headache.
Although she lived in backwater of a village, she still had some understanding about geography and the nations around her. For a world wonder that high up to the sky and there were still 8 of it in the world, Alicia should have heard some myth about it. Unfortunately, she still could not recall any even after racking her brain.
Ebraham did not let her blindly guess for so long. He got off his seat and went to stand by the glass window, looking at the outside scenery. He reckoned Alicia to also come.
When Alicia arrived by his side, Ebraham pointed her the channel. The channel was by the lower left corner of the window, so it did not directly get into her view previously.
Alicia curiously looked at the long straight channel. It was glistening black as if the scale of a black snake. Managed to capture her interest, Alicia followed the channel with her gaze to the end of it and only to be surprised by the black silhouette floating on top of it.
"What is that!?" surprised, Alicia looked for explanation from Ebraham.
"That is the Axis. It's a diamond-shaped floating… island. There are 6 of them in this world" Ebraham briefly explained about the Axis.
But that brief explanation was enough for Alicia. Floating island, so her eyes actually did not play trick to her. The silhouette was far away, but she could clearly see the solidness of its shadow, telling her that it was substantial, not imaginary.
'A mythical floating island should never exist in this world' such thought passed through her mind. Suddenly, as if realising something, her heart started to beat faster.
The mountains and rivers in her view, from high above, there was nothing that resembled a trace of human civilization, all of it was just pure nature. And then she heard Ebraham said…